Julie Bishop is preferred Liberal leader, according to poll

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She’s just celebrated ten years since becoming Deputy Leader of the Liberal Party, and Julie Bishop is currently Australia’s preferred choice as Liberal Party leader.

That’s according to the latest Fairfax-Ipos poll, the final such poll to haunt Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull for the year. She has also previously come up as preferred leader in Newspoll surveys.

Bishop received 32% of the vote as preferred leader in the Fairfax-Ipos poll, compared with 29% for the current PM, Tony Abbott received 14%.

And unfortunately for Peter Dutton and Scott Morrison — also considered contenders to one day replace Turnbull as leader, they just can’t get the popularity vote, preferred by only 5% and 4% of voters respectfully.

Bishop’s popularity drops when just Coalition voters are polled, she takes just 29% of that vote compared to 35% for Turnbull.

So could we see a Julie Bishop Government before the next election?

Well it might not be the wisest move. This poll also suggests that voters don’t want to see Malcolm Turnbull axed, with 71% saying elected prime miners should serve their full term.

It seems there’s only one portion of the population that believes dumping sitting prime ministers is a good idea: politicians, and possibly journalists.

Bishop has also repeatedly stated her support for Turnbull. The Foreign Minister has been Deputy Leader of the Liberal Party since the 29th November 2007. She’s served in that position under three separate leaders: Brendan Nelson, Tony Abbott and Malcolm Turnbull. Six of those years have been in Opposition, the past four in government.

She also once served John Howard as the ‘Minister Assisting the Prime Minister on Women’s Issues.’

Angela Priestley is the Founding Editor of Women's Agenda. She's an author, journalist and editor turned media entrepreneur and business owner. She's interviewed more than 1000 women during her career, and regularly shares what she's learnt on Women's Agenda and in front of audiences as a speaker, panellist & event moderator.